The Beta version of Google Chrome 6 was released on August 11, 2010. The browser has several versions as you can read in the post: Google Chrome – Software channel breakdown, since that post was written, Google even created a new version named Canary but that is a topic for another post.

Chrome uses the source code of an open source project named Chrominum. The project is in version 7 at the moment.

At the time this article was written Google Chrome stable version is 5.0.375.127.

And the Beta version is 6.0.472.36

Every time a new version of Google Chrome is released, features change, so is important to know what exactly we are talking about. If you want to test the new version of Chrome but don’t want to uninstall your current installation use the Canary version.

The Canary version is always newer than the Beta but it installs in another directory. This way you can have two different versions installed.

1. Changes to the User Interface

Left Buttons

If you like a minimalist user interface you will love Chrome 6. The new interface, even though the changes are not so spectacular, makes the browser look lighter.

Buttons on version 5:

And in version 6:

In Chrome 6 by default, as the image shows, the bookmarks toolbar is disabled.

When a page is loaded, the refresh button behaviour and aspect changes so you can stop it.

Right Menus

Google is looking for simplicity so why use two menus instead of one? This changed on version 6.

Right menus in version 5:

and in version 6:

So the new menu has everything on it:

In the tools menu you will find the rest of the options:

2. Better Standards Support

It is very complicated to compare how different browsers support standards. With a standard like HTML5, that offers so many features, is even more complicated. HTML5test.com tries to at least give us a clue about this. This site runs several tests and gives a number with the results.

For this post I have made a comparison between the last versions of the most popular browsers:

Chrome 5.0.375.127 Stable version scores 197 points

Chrome 6.0.472.36 Beta 217 points

Chrominium 7.0.497.0 (56316) 222 points

Internet Explorer 8.0.7600.16385 27 points

Internet Explorer Platform Preview 1.9.7916.6000 96 points

Firefox 3.6.8, 139 points

Firefox 4 Beta 3 190 points.

I have tested a pre release of Firefox Beta 5 that scores 190 points

The maximum is 300 points.

3. Better performance

Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 are going to have hardware acceleration implemented. At least for now, Chrome 6 doesn’t have this feature, but that doesn’t mean is not going to be faster than Chrome 5.

Google claims that the new beta is 15% than the previous beta release.

4. AutoFill

This is one of the key features of Chrome 6. The idea is to use the browser to store personal information. The user can choose when to share this information with a website. The system allows, at least in the Beta version, to store addresses as you can see in the image:

or a credit card:

Once you do this, you choose when you want to use the information to complete web forms. To know more about Autofill read: Webpages: Form AutoFill. Remember that this is still a Beta version so wait for the stable version to use with your credit card.

5. Native PDF

Chrome has native support for PDF but is not enabled by default. If you don’t want to use the Adobe PDF reader you can use this option.

Native PDF can be enabled by opening a new tab and typing about:plugins and clicking enable under ‘Chrome PDF Viewer’.

6. Synchronization

Now Chrome can use synchronization for bookmarks, preferences, themes and AutoFill data, with the exception of credit card numbers.

I am an Engineer of Telecommunications that love computers. My first computer was a Commodore 16kb, about 25 years ago and since then I am always fighting computers problems. Please visit my entries and ask me about whatever problem you have, I will be pleased to help you. My email is discoveryourpc [at] gmail [dot] com. You can follow me on twitter @agenlu or read my blog www.discoveryourpc.net

Using an executable file I found on another forum I made Canary (currently in the 7.0 area) my default, haven't had any problems so far. Though different hardware, different setups, different results. :)